★Table of the Elements
Jet Ear Party
Jet Ear Party, Jonathan Kane's second full-length release, is a masterpiece of raw, ass-thumping Americana that shakes the meat right off the bone. With guest appearances from members of his live band, February, Kane barrels into these eight tracks like a freight train. He lunges at breakneck boogies and tom-driven swamp stomps with equal abandon. In a radical departure, he tones down his mojo long enough to accommodate female vocals for a breathlessly sexy, overtone-drenched soul ballad. Kane e…
Impala Eardrums: A Radium Sampler
Radium is regarded as Table Of The Elements' rock offshoot, although they do write that in inverted commas (that's 'rock', in case you were wondering what that would look like). The label is given a showcase by this eight-track LP, calling upon Jonathan Kane, Megafaun, Ateleia, Collections Of Colonies of Bees and Neptune among others. Rhys Chatham, that most iconic of Radium artists gets the album underway with an untitled piece from 1986, featuring an arsenal of four guitars, a bass and drums. …
Primordial Lift
Primordial Lift was originally released in 2000 and is a recording of a performance Oliveros made with David Grubbs on Harmonium and Tony Conrad on electric violin among others. Of course, the result is transcendent and throws your mind across the room – thick waves of sound and dense drones surround you as you listen and the instruments become one wall of pulsating sound. Some of you might know Oliveros from her minimalist work with the Deep Listening Band, which she founded – this material how…
Live at Federal Hall National Memorial, 1981
Arnold Dreyblatt is one of the most engaging of the second generation of New York minimalists. During a three decade career he has developed a distinctive -- and delightfully accessible -- approach to composition and performance. Employing modified and invented instruments and a unique tuning system, his music is a vigorously rhythmic and richly textured romp through the natural overtone series. This live CD celebrates the 25th anniversary of Dreyblatt's historic concert at Federal Hall in New Y…
Metals
Percussionist Jon Mueller works with rhythms that come from gong frequencies, from vibrations of the bodies of bass drums, and the surprising sonorities that occur with the combination of these elements. Now he applies these techniques to his latest solo effort, to stunning effect: Metals is, as its name suggests, a bold, all-percussion foray into heavy metal. No theatrical silliness here; just sheer exhilaration; the fundamental power of loud, organized, precise rhythms; ringing, heavy anti-mel…
Bury The Square
From the vibrant Southern quasi-capital of Durham emerge Megafaun, wearing earnestness across the chest and abstraction along the sleeves. They pour forth dulcet harmonies, as seeking vocals tug banjo lines up the Appalachian mountains; redemptive noise soaks everything, like thick air wafting from the Atlantic. Clawhammer banjo and strummed acoustics lock and roll with electric guitars and electronic textures. They realize that folk implies deep, personal, intense expression, whether the instru…
Détails Agrandis
This collection of three pieces is dedicated to artists and musicians whom Bernhard Günter admires. The collection's title translates to "Enlarged Details," an apt description of Günter's approach to composition. Musically all of them involve a limited vocabulary of sounds interacting with silence. "Four Grey Paintings" uses low rumbles hovering at the very edge of audibility, interrupted with high-pitched tones and metallic twangs. Dedicated to Jim O'Rourke (an early champion of Günter's music)…